So far, as a valve for distributing air supplied from an air pump or the like into a plurality of pipes, there is, for example, a selector valve configured so as to open or close two discharge ports 104a and 104b by subjecting a movable valve 121 connected to a spring 108 and an electromagnetic device 120 such as a solenoid via a piston rod 126 to reciprocating motion by a biasing action of the spring 108 and a driving force of the electromagnetic device 120 as shown in FIG. 13. Namely in FIG. 13, while an electric current is not fed to the electromagnetic device 120, the movable valve 121 is drawn toward the right side in FIG. 13 due to the biasing action of the spring 108 to close the discharge port 104a, and as a result, the air supplied from an air pump or the like and flowing into an air chamber 123 at the suction side passes through the discharge port 104b and is discharged into a discharge pipe 124b. On the other hand, when an electric current is fed to the electromagnetic device 120, the movable valve 121 is moved toward the left side in FIG. 13 due to the driving force of the electromagnetic device 120 resisting the biasing action of the spring 108 to close the discharge port 104b, and the air supplied from an air pump or the like passes through the discharge port 104a and is discharged into a discharge pipe 124a. 
Further, as shown in FIGS. 14A and 14B and FIGS. 15A-15C, there is a selector valve in which a piston rod 226 on which a plurality of movable valves 221a-221e are mounted apart from each other is inserted into a cylinder 225 provided with a suction portion 223 and a plurality of discharge portions 222a-222c, and by subjecting this piston rod 226 to reciprocating motion in the cylinder 225 by means of a drive source 214, the suction portion 223 is communicated with any of the discharge portions 222a-222c via a space partitioned by the movable valves 221a-221e in the cylinder 225. FIGS. 14A and 14B represents a selector valve for distributing air to the two discharge portions 222a and 222b, and FIGS. 15A-15C represents a selector valve for distributing air to the three discharge portions 222a-222c. In FIGS. 15A-15C, the suction portion 223 is connected to the cylinder 225 via a branching port 228a or 228b. In the state shown in FIG. 14A, the air supplied from an air pump or the like and flowing into the suction portion 223 passes through the space at the left side of the movable valve 221a and is discharged into the discharge portion 222a, and on the other hand, as shown in FIG. 14B, when the piston rod 226 is moved until the movable valve 221a is located at the left side of an opening 223a of the suction portion 223, the air passes through the space between the movable valve 221a and the movable valve 221b in the cylinder 225 and is discharged into the discharge portion 222b. In the state shown in FIG. 15A, the air supplied from an air pump or the like and flowing into the suction portion 223 passes through the branching port 228a and the space between the movable valve 221b and the movable valve 221c in the cylinder 225 and is discharged into the discharge portion 222a, and in FIG. 15A, when the piston rod 226 is moved toward the right direction, as shown in FIGS. 15B and 15C, the discharge portion communicating with the suction portion 223 is changed from the discharge portion 222a to the discharge portion 222b, further to the discharge portion 222c in order according to the positions of the movable valves 221a-221e, and the air supplied from an air pump or the like is discharged into any of the discharge portions 222a-222c communicating with the suction portion 223.
The conventional selector valve shown in FIG. 13 is configured such that air from the suction side is discharged to any one of the two discharge ports 104a and 104b, and the other discharge port is closed with the movable valve 121 driven by the electromagnetic device 120. Therefore, in the case where there are more than two branches, for each of additional branches, the electromagnetic device 120 and the movable valve 121 are to be added to either of the discharge pipe 124a side of the discharge port 104a or the discharge pipe 124b side of the discharge port 104b or to the both thereof, and thus, there is a problem that the number of electromagnetic devices 120 increases, cost increases largely and a size of the selector valve increases. Further, when using a plurality of electromagnetic devices 120 as mentioned above, it is necessary to control feeding of electric current for driving each of the electromagnetic devices 120, and yet to control it in connection with switching of feeding or stopping of electric current for driving to other electromagnetic devices 120, which causes a problem of complicated control of opening/closing of the discharge port. Furthermore, there is a problem that the increased number of electromagnetic devices 120 increases a failure rate of the selector valve.
Further, since the movable valve 121 is pressed onto the discharge ports 104a and 104b repeatedly, there is a possibility that the movable valve 121 is broken or falls into a condition that it cannot exhibit normal function due to its abrasion or deformation. In that case, the movable valve 121 needs to be replaced. However, in the case of the selector valve shown in FIG. 13, there is a problem that since the movable valve 121 is fixed to a piston rod 126, it cannot be removed easily, and so it is replaced together with the piston rod 126 or the electromagnetic device 120, resulting in increased cost.
Further, the selector valve shown in FIGS. 14A and 14B and FIGS. 15A-15C is configured such that a flow path is formed by combination of the cylinder 225 with the two-way branched flow paths between the suction portion 223 and the plural discharge portions 222a-222c, and the flow path to the discharge portions other than the discharge portion from which air is discharged is blocked with the movable valves 221a-221e. Therefore, there is a problem that for two each of additional branches, branched flow paths such as branching ports 228a and 228b shown in FIG. 13 are needed in the flow path at the suction portion 223 side, resulting in increase in cost and size of the selector valve.
Further, also in the selector valve shown in FIGS. 14A and 14B and FIGS. 15A-15C, since the movable valves 221a-221e slide while being in contact with the inner wall of the cylinder 225, there is a possibility that they need to be replaced due to breakage or the like. However, since the movable valves 121 are fixed to the piston rod 226, they cannot be removed easily, and so they need to be replaced together with the piston rod 226 or the drive source 214, resulting in increased cost.
The presently disclosed embodiment was made in light of the above-mentioned situation, and the object of the presently disclosed embodiment is to provide a multi-directional selector valve which makes it possible to control opening and closing of plural discharge ports in an easy manner and yet minimize increase in cost and size in the case where the number of branches is increased.
Another object of the presently disclosed embodiment is to provide a multi-directional selector valve which makes it possible to easily replace only the valve body, thereby reducing cost for maintaining function of the valve in the case where the valve body falls into a state of being unusable due to breakage, abrasion or deformation.